Thursday, August 09, 2012

progress

With the exception of a major splurge on my birthday (more about that later), I have changed my diet drastically: no dairy, no grains, no sugar. I stopped taking the omeprazole, it wasn't helping anyway. I'm not drinking ginger tea any more (unless I feel like a cup of tea), I'm grating fresh ginger into warm water and drinking that before bed. I'm also doing a nifty little exercise from Dr. David Williams that he describes in his article on Natural Treatments and Remedies for Acid Reflux to reposition a hiatal hernia -- it seems to help.

Things that are better:
* my weight is down to its lowest point in probably 2 years. I'm still not at the official weight listed on my driver's license, but I'm not sure I weighed that much when the license was issued.
* my RA appears to be back in remission (yay!)
* heartburn-ish feelings are much rarer than they used to be at the beginning of the month, when I didn't want to go anywhere without some Tums

Things that are worse:
* sore throat with that lumpy feeling: there's still reflux going on even though I don't feel any heartburn. Earlier this week it actually felt better, but starting school again has set it back.* completely out of whack digestion -- I've gone from gastroparesis back to the rapid transit problem I had years ago when I had my gallbladder removed. I've backed off my Vitamin C completely to see if that helps, and today it does seems a little better.

My DGL (deglycyrrhizinated licorice root extract) arrived today, and I have some D-limonene arriving soon. Both of these are supposed to help support the mucous membranes of the stomach and intestines (DGL) and the esophagus (D-limonene). The D-limonene is a 20-day regimin, which will bring me right up to my appointment with my g/e doctor, and we'll see what he says.

So far my voice (after 2 talk-heavy days of instruction) is holding out OK, but talking so much on a throat that is already sore from reflux isn't good. I'm working on giving myself more vocal rest in class and plan on being quiet this weekend.

I wanted to feel better by the time school started and I do -- not perfect, but definitely moving in the right direction. Here's hoping it continues.

1 comment:

Joan, you and I run such parallel lives! I'm struggling with reflux again after having a good set of months. It's tough to figure out what causes what, but, like you, I"m attacking it from all sides. Good luck with yours!